A 19-year-old Spokane woman died Sunday when the car she was riding in crashed into a tree near 54th Avenue and Hatch Road on Spokane’s South Side.
Speed and alcohol were both factors in the 2:24 a.m. crash, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. The victim’s name has not been released, pending an autopsy.
The Sheriff’s Office reported that Taylor Marean, 18, was driving a 2005 BMW at a “high rate of speed” while racing with another vehicle southbound on Hatch Road. Brooke Reese, 18, was driving the other vehicle, a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am.
Reese tried to make a left hand turn at a high rate of speed, while at the same time Marean was attempting to pass her on the left, deputies reported. The two vehicles collided in a “T-bone” fashion.
The Pontiac struck a pine tree with its right-side door, killing the woman in the passenger seat. Reese was treated and released from a local hospital. Neither Marean nor his passenger, Ryan Perrizo, 19, were injured.
